


Rebuilding

by thewightknight



Series: Redemption Is Not a Dirty Word [1]
Category: Aquaman (2018), DC Extended Universe
Genre: Brothers, Family Feels, Gen, Post Aquaman movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 16:20:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17247446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/pseuds/thewightknight
Summary: Orm: “What? You haven’t tormented me enough for one day?”Arthur: “Nope! C’mon. We’re taking a field trip.”





	Rebuilding

Atlanna found Arthur at the top of one of the spires, staring out at the lights of Atlantis. His hands flexed and clenched and she could see the tension in his shoulders.

She’d expected to find him like this. He’d gone to visit Orm that morning, and that never went well.

Walking up behind him, she stood next to him, resting her head against his shoulder, and waited.

Eventually the outburst came.

“He just won’t listen! He’s so stubborn.”

“Unlike you,” she couldn’t help but tease and he scowled at her for a few moments before grinning.

“Well, we certainly don’t get that from our mother,” he shot back, and she laughed.

“Certainly not,” she agreed, and they lapsed into silence again.

“If only I could make him see,” he said at last.

She rolled those words about in her head, then looked up at him. “Then show him.”

 

As far as prisons went, it could have been worse, Orm knew. He was kept in comfort, in a suite instead of a dank cell. He had both water and air, his food was fit for the king he had once been, and as long as he didn’t leave his rooms his actions were not constrained.

He didn’t lack for visitors. Sometimes he wished that wasn’t the case. This morning’s visit with his brother had devolved into their usual shouting match.

“Stubborn fool,” he muttered, pacing his quarters in his agitation.

He wheeled in surprise when his door opened again, and scowled when he saw Arthur standing there, clad in human garments. He caught the bundle of cloth that his brother threw at him in reflex, sneering when he saw they matched Arthur's.

“What? You haven’t tormented me enough for one day?”

“Nope! C’mon. We’re taking a field trip.”

He was too proud to ask what ‘field trip’ meant. This was the first time he’d left these rooms since they’d returned to Atlantis. He ignored the guards that trailed him, and the stares they left in their wake. Arthur led them to the docks, and he gaped in surprise to find both their mother and Mera waiting for them.

The clothes Arthur had brought for him chafed, but as everyone else was clad as he was and no one else complained, he swallowed the words and waited to see what would come.

The ship that waited for them was a small one, Orm noticed with surprise, small enough that there was no room for a guard detail. Without a word, the two women boarded the ship and Arthur followed, taking one of the seats in the rear.

“Well? You coming?” he asked Orm, still grinning that grin that made Orm want to punch him.

He didn’t pay any attention to the chatter as they flew through the water. He didn’t ask where they were going and he told himself he didn’t care. It was enough to be not in those small rooms, to see the ocean moving around him instead of beating at his windows, as if to taunt his seclusion. So it took him by surprise when they surfaced and he saw an island before them, with human habitations blighting the hills.

Mera made no attempt at stealth as they approached, pulling their ship right up to the docks. Humans waved at them, as if their appearance was commonplace, and returned to their business. The other three disembarked, and Arthur waved at him, a come-hither gesture he thought about ignoring. But then Atlanna fixed him with that look of hers and he sighed.

Now that they stood on the ground, he could see that this gathering of buildings was much the worse for wear. There were many damaged roofs and broken walls and rubble still littered the streets in some places.

Humans moved back and forth between piles of lumber and tiles. Others mixed white cement. Arthur and Mera merged into them seamlessly and Atlanna soon followed, leaving him staring.

A hand touched his, and he flinched. Looking down, he saw a small child, a girl, staring up at him. She said something he didn't understand. When he didn't respond, she giggled and ran off. Other children had gathered around him, he now saw. They hid their faces in their hands when they saw him look, peeking out at him between fingers. Someone called out to them and they dispersed with more giggling, throwing looks back over their shoulder at him.

"They say you look like the sun."

Arthur had snuck up on him again. To cover his discomfort, he shot back "And what do they say you look like?"

"Trouble." Another of those grins spread across Arthur's face, and Orm almost smiled in response. "Are you going to help, or are you just going to stand there all day, waiting for a seagull to land on your head?"

He was about to give a blistering retort, on how they were royalty and above menial labor, but then he saw his mother. Two men labored, lugging a giant timber up the steep road. Atlanna followed behind them, one of the same timbers resting on her shoulder as lightly as a strand of seaweed. As he watched, they reached their destination, a house half-destroyed. Mera was there already, and she summoned swirls of water to lift the timbers into place on the roofs. Men descended on them with hammers, securing them in place, as Atlanna started back down the hill again.

"We're on roofing detail."

Orm was used to sweating, pushing himself until his muscles ached, but that was in training or battle. Hauling crates of ceramic tiles after his brother did not bring him the same feeling of accomplishment. He knew what saying any of the things that hovered on his tongue would bring - a look of disappointment from his mother. Her return was still so fresh that he could still hardly believe it, so he bit his tongue each time and picked up another crate.

They broke when the sun was high, sitting among the people of this island on rocks and piles of wood. Several women brought around bowls of something creamy and filled with seafod and chunks of some kind of roots. He eyed it, dubious, but Arthur started shoveling it into his mouth without hesitation so he could do no less. It had a curious texture and a flavor unlike he'd ever known. After his first tentative taste he began to consume it with a haste similar to his brother.

He'd nearly reached the bottom of the bowl when he heard a noise, soft at first but quickly increasing in intensity. Looking up, he saw one of the human air transports, a helicopter, approaching, a large crate in netting swaying beneath.

"There it is!" Arthur stood, waving at the craft.

"What is it?" Orm asked before he could help himself.

"Something else that needs replacing."

The helicopter descended slowly, centering over a courtyard. As they neared, he could see the words "Wayne Vineyards" stenciled on the container.

An old couple, bent and wizened, wrinkled faces split with huge smiles, materialized at his elbows as the netting fell away. Arthur said something to them that Orm didn't understand and they nodded, babbling at him in return.

"I told them it probably isn't as good as theirs," Arthur said as he ripped off the top of the container. Smaller crates filled it, the bottles inside nested in straw. A line formed and the crates were brought up to a small building and one by one the bottles filled the empty shelves.

By the time the sun set most of the village stood whole again.

"It's good," Arthur pronounced. "Almost as good as before."

"Before what?" Orm asked, wondering at the strange feeling creeping up on him.

"Before us. We destroyed this place, you and I. Well, your guards me and Black Manta, but you know what I mean. Took a bit to get everything here, but I think we're forgiven."

Atlanna came to stand between them and Arthur put an arm around her shoulders. She smiled up at him, and then at Orm as well, pulling him close.

"I will leave you two now," she said. "I have a sunrise to catch." She squeezed them both, then took off towards the water at a run. Arthur left him there, staring after her, and Mera took his place.

"He walks among them as if he has nothing to fear. Does he not worry that one will seek revenge for the damage he caused?"

His scowl returned as he watched the humans swarm his brother, smiling and touching him as he walked among them.

"No wonder he loves them so much, with how they fawn over him," he sneered, and Mera stirred beside him.

"It isn't sycophancy, but respect and admiration. Our own people are beginning to regard him with such as well."

It was true, he realized. He'd seen it in the guards' behavior when Arthur visited. He'd been seeing it in Vulko for years.

He was silent on the trip home, lost in thoughts much different that from when they'd left. He was silent all the way from the docks to his rooms. He finally broke the silence at his door, before Arthur left.

"Perhaps tomorrow ...." He trailed off and Arthur waited, head cocked slightly to one side. "Never mind."

"Tomorrow, then," Arthur said in farewell.

There was still dirt under his fingernails and he stared at it as Arthur's footsteps retreated. Today had given him many things to think about, and many he'd prefer not to. He still wasn't convinced that his brother had the makings of a king, or could take the actions needed to save their home and the world around it, but for the first time he found himself not viewing Arthur with utter scorn.

There were many tomorrows ahead of them. He'd wait and see.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you want to say hi, [check out my profile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/profile) for where I’m currently hanging out on this here internet thing.


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